My favorite way to eat farro is with loads of veggies, nuts, and a hint of sweetness, either from dried fruit or like here, with fresh spiralized pears.

Farro is a hearty grain that was a huge part of the diets of the ancient Romans. Now, considering the ancient Romans built masterpieces like the Colosseum, I’d say they were properly fueled.

Today, I’m sharing a group-friendly spiralized meal that’s great for potlucks, having friends over for dinner, meal prepping, or for holidays, such as this upcoming Easter, if you celebrate!

Ironically cute story about Easter, first. My mother is Jewish. She wasn’t brought up religiously, but that was her family’s religion. On the other side, my father is Roman Catholic. I’m a pizza bagel, as I like to say! How was I raised? Pretty agnostically. Religion was never a part of my upbringing, since my parents weren’t at all religious.

Growing up, we mainly celebrated the Christian holidays, because my father’s side of the family was much more religious than my mother’s side of the family. My grandparents made sure we celebrated every major Christian holiday, and I even attended church every once in a while as a child, with my grandmother (which I always associate with a blow dryer, because she’d make me blow dry my hair and look presentable before going to church!)

Our Easter egg hunts, for example, were one of my favorite childhood memories. I hated getting dressed up in fluffy dresses, but I loved running around my grandparents’ backyard, searching for colored eggs with candy, toys and quarters in them!

Ironically now, my mother is flying up to celebrate the Easter holiday, although my grandparents aren’t in town (sadly, as many of you know, my grandfather passed away earlier this year – and my grandmother will be in Arizona.)

When I asked her why she wanted to celebrate Easter, she goes, “Because we always celebrate Easter!” And my father, once an altar boy, hasn’t been to church since he was an altar boy!

I laughed when my mother said she was flying up from Florida to celebrate the holiday, but then I realized what the holidays were to us growing up: a time to spend with our family. A time to love, a time to gather, and even though we didn’t always acknowledge the religious part of these holidays, it taught us values and lessons like the importance of family.

My favorite part of any holiday is the food. Well, eating the food with the people I love, more specifically. In celebration of Easter, I wanted to share a big large salad that could be prepped ahead, would save well as leftovers, and would look beautiful on an Easter table.

I used Bob’s Red Mill’s organic farro, which is my second favorite grain, aside from couscous. It’s perfect for making big side dishes, salads, or vegetarian-friendly main dishes. Farro has a great nutty taste that complements the sweet pear noodles and fluffy cauliflower.

Farro is easy to make – I never have to ‘watch over’ farro, like I do with lentils or quinoa. It just cooks perfectly, every time. It really does! So what does farro bring to the nutritional table and thus, in today’s recipe? It’s higher in fiber (hello, easy digestion!), helps lower cholesterol, is high in antioxidants, and is a substantial source of protein.

I love the grocery store in my building, because it has a giant wall of Bob’s Red Mill products, and they always have organic farro.

However you choose to eat farro, I really recommend it! And if you celebrate Easter or are having friends over, make this farro salad with spiralized pears!

Note: This post was sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill. However, all opinions are my own, always.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cook the farro. Rinse and drain the farro. Place the farro in a medium pot and add the stock to cover. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes. Once done, drain off any excess water.

Meanwhile, place the cauliflower onto the baking sheet and add in the olive oil and season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Toss well to combine and bake for 35 minutes or until cauliflower is fork tender and browned.

While cauliflower and farro cooks, make the dressing. Place all of the ingredients for the dressing in a dressing shaker or small mixing bowl and mix well. Taste and adjust with more salt, if needed. Set aside.

Once cauliflower and farro is done, place it all in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Spiralize the pear with Blade D, trim the noodles with kitchen shears, and place in the bowl with the farro. Pour over the prepared dressing and toss well to combine. Serve.

Do you mix the farro and cauliflower with the dressing while hot or cold? Can the pear noodles be prepared ahead of time or should they be spiralized and added to the salad immediately prior to serving? Thanks!

I've never made farro but this looks delicious and I really want to try it. My apologies for the questions that I'm sure are no brainers for everyone else......so, do I combine the farro and cauliflower once cooked and cooled? Also, is the spiralized pear served on top or is it also combined with the farro and cauliflower? Does the dressing go on at the time it's made or right before serving? Or what can be made ahead? Once again, sorry for all of the questions

My e xperience with farro is that you have to cook the daylights out of it. Make sure it is cooked enough and maybe allow more cooking time. Sounds wonderful. I would think that the pear would darken pretty soon after spiralizing so it isn't something that I would do ahead of time. The lemon juice probably keeps it nice
and bright.

Ali, your favourite (spelling from Canada!) grain is couscous? ;)
Aside from that little Freudian slip... this sounds delicious! But my meal plans are all in place, so I'll have to wait a week. I'd better throw a couple of pears in the fridge so they'll still be good by then.

hi Ali -
We really enjoyed this tonight, even with all the changes I had to make.
1) Didn't have a cauliflower, so I used the "D" setting to spiralize a lg sweet potato instead, and roasted it for 10 mins at 400*.
2) Didn't have a pear, so I took your advice from the blog and used 'another fruit': 1/4c. dried cranberries.
3) I used 'Better Than Bullion' chicken flavor - perfect!
Before adding the dressing I stirred the warm farro into the sw. potato/cranberry mixture (it had about 1tsp of chicken broth remaining) and it softened up the cranberries.
The dressing was great - I was able to use up the half-lemon I had left from the LEMON-GARLIC BROCCOLI NOODLES WITH WHITE BEANS AND PARMESAN that I made a few days ago, it's a recipe I got from your 'site - also delicious!
This would make a nice side dish if you eat while still warm, maybe with fish.
Thanks for another winner! ~ ruth

Ali, Have a wonderful vacation. No friends like old friends and that includes sisters. I didn't have any
farro and my wheat berries were too old so I made brown rice in my pressure cooker (instant pot)
Make sure your pear is really hard because it can get balky otherwise. I toasted some almonds as I thought it
might need some more crunch. I looked up online about pressure cooking farro and wheat berries and it
takes about a half hour under pressure. Will try that soon.

I made this a few days ago, and it was really good! My first time for farro, and it's wonderful -- a nice, "meaty" texture and very filling. The roasted cauliflower was great and the pear added nice crunch. I served the dish slightly warm, and even the leftovers were great the next day. I warmed them for just about 25 seconds in the microwave.